Sbrocco is Iowa's only restaurant named to OpenTable's Top 100 Restaurants in the U.S. with the Most Notable Wine Lists. / Register file photo

So, I can’t be the only person who reads cookbooks in bed, right? And “Cook’s Illustrated”? And collections of food essays? There’s just something satisfying about being all tucked up and reading about all the good things people cook and eat and think about cooking and eating (there’s a theme going here). I think my next bedtime food story will be “Fried Walleye & Cherry Pie: Midwestern Writers on Food.” It is, as local writer Mary Kay Shanley, wrote to me, a “collection of essays from Midwestern writers, that as opposed to Midwestern food writers.” (Even so, I wish I had gotten invited to that party… .) The book was released by the University of Nebraska Press on Nov. 1.

Shanley and fellow contributor Tim Bascom of Des Moines will be on the stump for readings and signings on Nov. 16 at Beaverdale Books (2 p.m., 2629 Beaver Ave.); and Nov. 20 at Prairie Lights in Iowa City (7-8 p.m., 15 S. Dubuque St.). The book’s editor, Peggy Wolff, will also be there. Another Iowa writer, Jeremy Jackson of Iowa City, will not be at the readings but will join Shanley and Bascom on Iowa Public Radio’s Talk of Iowa with Charity Nebbe, 11 a.m.-noon Nov. 20.

The essays’ topics range from meatloaf (to which I say absolutely) to the ethics of pate (to which I say, again, absolutely — and if you want to get into food ethics, there are places to start much closer to home than pate) and feature some big bookish names like Lorna Landvik, Elizabeth Berg and Robert Olmstead.

Kosher breakfast

CultureALL, an area group that does all sorts of cool events designed to expand our cultural horizons, will host its next Culture Kin Breakfast and networking event on Tuesday, Nov. 12, from 7 to 9 a.m. at Beth El Jacob (954 Cummins Parkway). The breakfast will feature a traditional (and kosher) Israeli breakfast, created by chef Louise Kauffman. Kaufmann is a Des Moines native who has been in the food business for more than four decades. She specializes in — and teaches — kosher cooking.

Guest hosts for the breakfast are Haim and Malka Naggar of Des Moines, who will talk about Israel’s diverse cultures and traditions. Plus there will be time for chit-chat and handing out business cards. Breakfast is $12 and half of the ticket price is tax deductible, with the proceeds going to CultureALL’s education programs for K-12 students. Last year, these programs served more than 26,000 students in central Iowa. See, it’s win-win-win.

Amuse-bouches

• Sbrocco is Iowa’s only restaurant named to OpenTable’s Top 100 Restaurants in the U.S. with the Most Notable Wine Lists. Twenty-seven states are on the list, and 21 of the 100 award winners are in California. Which seems unfair, since they got a lot of the beaches, too. Anyway, Sbrocco has some pretty high-falutin’ co-stars in this list, including Thomas Keller’s The French Laundry — in Cali, of course.

• It’s that time of the year (and it’s the 10th year) when French chefs and their students show up in Iowa as part of DMACC’s French chef exchange program. It’s late notice, but you can eat free French cheese from 6 to 8 tonight at the Riverwalk Hub (215 Water St.) and mingle avec les chefs. And you can get a taste of France at the Cuisiniers de Loire Contest Winning Dinner at the downtown Embassy Club Friday (34th floor of the Ruan Center), Nov. 8. at 6:30 p.m. For only $60 — which includes wine! — you’ll get a taste of award-winning recipes and an incredible view of the city. Call 515-244-2582 for reservations.

• If you like an air of mystery about your dinner, check out Dishcrawl’s new “Secret Suppers” event. What you can know is that the dinner is Nov. 12 and that it includes an amuse bouche and six courses. What you can’t know until 48 hours before the event is where it will be, exactly what you’re eating or who’s preparing it. Tickets are $49 per and you can get them at www.dishcrawl.com/secretsupperdsm. For more information on Dishcrawl, find them on Facebook or on Twitter @dishcrawldsm.

• Orchestrate will roll out its own line of house-cured meats today and you’ll see them appearing on the feature menus at Centro and Django. To start, they’ll offer coppa (from the upper back/neck), lonza (from the lower back) and pancetta (from the belly). Prosciutto is in the works. Orchestrate has the only restaurants in Iowa that are HACCP-certified (that’s part of the government’s excruciatingly detailed and onerous food-safety programs) to produce on-site. Chefs Derek Eidson of Centro, Johan Larsson of Django and Scott Stroud, corporate chef, have been spear-heading the meat-curing efforts with George Formaro.

• I know it’s getting a little redundant but Holy Pig Parts, Batman! These Smokey D’s BBQ folks are on fire (heh, heh). On Oct. 26, co-owners Shad and Angie Kirton, who compete under the name A Boy and His BBQ, got some lovin’ at the 25th Annual Jack Daniels World Championship Invitational BBQ in Lynchburg, Tenn. They took seventh place in ribs, first place in brisket and Overall Reserve Grand Champions against 96 other teams. The Kirtons’ win comes hard on the heels of a win by their Smokey D’s business partners Darren and Sherry Warth, who won the top prize at the American Royal Open BBQ Contest and Reserve Grand Champions in the Sam’s Club National Championship just in the last few weeks.